2 April 2008
Major Funding Boost For
Science Engagement at Our Dynamic Earth
Our Dynamic Earth is to receive significant
funding through the Science Engagement Grant scheme, a Scottish Government
initiative to engage young people in science. Edinburgh’s five-star visitor attraction will receive over
£80,000 to support three projects including a summer show in collaboration with
Edinburgh International Science Festival.
Catriona Cardie, Marketing
Director at Our Dynamic Earth, said
“Science plays a major part
in our everyday lives and it is really important to engage with both our
possible scientists of tomorrow and young people who may not yet have an active
interest in science. Our projects take science out of the classroom into a fun,
colourful arena, making it more accessible to a wider audience. We also bring important topical issues to
life in an exciting and entertaining way. We are delighted to receive this
funding which means we can work with fantastic partners to take these projects
to their full potential.”
Our Dynamic Earth, which
has over 200,000 visitors every year, has been awarded £30,000 to deliver two
summer shows in association with Generation Science – the touring science
education programme from Edinburgh International Science Festival.
The shows will be held in a
marquee outside the visitor attraction in July and August 2008. Another £22,246
has been granted to produce and distribute Earth Hero Toolkits, creative
science packs for families to take away and do at home.
A further £30,000 was
assigned to the Closer2Nature project, a schools’ outreach programme, delivered
in association with the Scottish Seabird Centre. Taking environmental science
to schools across Scotland, it offers the first Climate Change Workshop
available on an outreach basis.
All three of these projects
will be match funded by a minimum of 5% by Our Dynamic Earth and other
partners. Thirty-three other projects across Scotland will also benefit from the overall £615,000
funding from the Science Engagement Scheme which is expected to reach 300,000
pupils.
For further information,
please contact:
Our Dynamic Earth, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS. Tel: 0131 550 7800 www.dynamicearth.co.uk
For further information on Science Engagement
grants see:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Business-Industry/science/16607/engag…
OUR DYNAMIC EARTH REACHES FOR THE STARS
This weekend Edinburgh’s Our Dynamic Earth
will be filled with a range of interactive activities to keep scientists
of all ages entertained. The five-star visitor attraction will host
an astrochemistry workshop, molecular machines exhibition and photographic
showcase, and will have everything from lightning in a jar and invisible
stars to spectroscopes and viruses out on show.
As part of Edinburgh’s International Science
Festival, Our Dynamic Earth is featuring Stars'R'Us, a new astrochemistry
workshop. A three-day drop-in exhibit, running from 4-6 April and hosted
by physics guru Martin McCoustra of Heriot Watt University, Stars'R'Us
attempts to answer the fundamental questions about the origins of life
and the truth of the stars. Using a combination of posters, video material
and hands on exhibits, Stars’R’Us reveals how chemistry controls the
workings of the modern day universe.
Molecular machines, an exhibition about the
common virus, will also be open this weekend for visitors to Our Dynamic
Earth. The exhibition opens on Friday 4 April and will display awe-inspiring
images and intriguing information about the secret world of super-bugs.
Also at Our Dynamic Earth this weekend, a
new photography exhibition will be on display. The Focus Environment Photographic
Exhibition will show off the winning entries from the Focus Environment
Photographic Competition and features images from 3 categories 'My Environment'
'Wildlife and Habitats' and 'Natures Moods'.
Stars’R’Us, Molecular machines and the
Focus Environment Photographic Exhibition are free to enter. Our Dynamic
Earth gallery entrance can be purchased on the day.
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